Papa's Beautiful Gravestone

Daddy Loves Bello

More Awesome Annie Pottery

My Civil Rights Shirt for Harris

 Although I can't support Harris 100% because of the abortion issue, I am so proud to wear the shirt in hopes that we have a first woman President who is also African American!

Finding Papa's Minesweeper Ship in Vietnam

 It was so exciting today to go to the veteran service's office and be shown the picture of the exact ship that Papa was on in Vietnam! It was a small mind sweeper called the USS leader. Papa was the cook on the ship and because it was during the Vietnam war it was the worst time in his life. He remembers the shipmates having to go out and investigate junks which are small Asian ships with a cabin on the top some of the vehicles use them to hide large amounts of explosives. He remembers the sound of them blowing up when found out. Papa always said the only thing that made him happy during this time was singing the first few bars of singing in the rain and Is cooking a steak for himself at midnight.

And as a gift to mom from beyond the grave, because Papa died of Vietnam Veteran and that's ruined and because of what they named on the death certificate that he died of, Oma is able to receive $20000 a year no questions asked.

Annie's New Car : A Silver 2024 Toyota Corolla

Surprise! Annie now has her graduation gift from Grandma & Grandpa 2 years early!  This came about completely unexpectedly in that we were at the lake taking care of Grandpa after his knee replacement surgery and when Brian arrived, I mentioned that I really didn't want him to put a salvage transmission in the old Toyota Corolla that had over 400000 miles on it. I simply asked Grandpa to please convince Brian not to do that. But what happened was, Grandpa took that information and called his "guy" in Greenville about a new car for Annie! Once Grandpa got it in his head that he was gonna do this, there was no stopping Grandpa! And now Annie has her dream car with all the bells and whistles including interactive cruise control!

Annie's Safety Angel : A Gift for Her First "Real" Car

 Today is a very special day in that Annie is headed to Newberry to pick up her very first real car. It is a silver 2024 Toyota Corolla  With all the Bells and whistles!  It just so happens that Annie's car, Bryan's old car with 400000 miles on it, died while we were down in Newbury taking care of Grandpa after his surgery.  Mostly I was concerned that Brian wanted to put a salvage transformation in this very old car. I wanted Grandpa to convince him otherwise, but what ended up happening is Grandpa called one of his "guys" and found a car for Annie!  Anyway, there will be another post about the car but this one is about her safety angel. In 1999 I went to Canada with my students at Sacred Heart Academy and we went to Niagara on the lake which is a large quaint array of Shops. I fell in love with this little figurine and decided to buy it and save it for my very first child who would have a new car. I always hoped I would have a girl, so it was perfect. The little angel is holding a car in her hand and she has her Driver's license on one side and her past driver's test in the other. My idea is that Annie would put this little angel on the dashboard to keep her safe. But she can do whatever she wants with it. For me, it is a very important piece of nostalgia In that I was buying something for someone who was not even a twinkle in my eye. On the bottom of the angel it says, "For Annie upon getting her first real car 2024. She is your safety angel. Love, Moo"

 She has been sitting here in the Curio cabinet in the back since 1999 waiting for one of my first children to get a car. It just so happened to be Annie in that Harvest and Leia share a car together.